Officials Aren't Linking Man's Arrest To Texas Explosion

April 25, in Waco: Friends, family members and fellow firefighters held a memorial for the first responders killed by the April 17 explosion at a fertilizer plant in West, Texas.

Jerry Larson/poolEPA /LANDOV

Saturday's reports about the arrest of a former emergency services volunteer in the town of West, Texas, indicate the story has not moved much from where we left things on Friday:

-- "Federal authorities said they wouldn't speculate on whether the case has any ties to the deadly blast at the West fertilizer plant, but officials with the McLennan County Sheriff's Office stressed in a news release that 'no evidence has been uncovered to indicate any connection to the events surrounding the fire and subsequent explosion . . . and the arrest of Bryce Reed by the ATF.' " (Waco Tribune)

-- "Federal bomb possession charges against a paramedic Friday spurred a new state and local criminal investigation into the deadly fertilizer plant fire and explosion. But authorities said there weren't yet any indications of a connection between the blast and the arrest of a man who responded to it." (Dallas Morning News)

-- "Reed, meanwhile, was in federal custody. A criminal complaint unsealed Friday afternoon said he was arrested after McLennan County deputies were called earlier this week to a home in Abbott, a town about five miles from West, and found bomb-making materials — including a galvanized metal pipe, canisters filled with fuses, a lighter, a digital scale and a variety of chemical powders. 'After further investigation, it was determined that the resident had unwittingly taken possession of the components from Reed on April 26,' says the complaint signed by ATF special agent Douglas Kunze." (The Associated Press)